Battlefield 3  Content Overload

We spend the day playing Battlefield 3 and give you a sample of what youll be doing on October 25.

On Thursday in San Francisco, Electronic Arts and DICE held a Battlefield 3 Final Hours Event to showcase their highly anticipated game in action before its October 25th launch. With the recent Beta and the fact that launch is less than 3 weeks away, we had the opportunity to sample quite a bit of content that day and here is what we can bring to you.

On the multiplayer side of things, we had the fortune to play a number of different multiplayer maps but the two we can mention today were Grand Bazaar and Operation Firestorm. For the former, youll be in a crowded market area in what appears to be downtown Tehran, Iran. The Multiplayer mode we played was Rush and we had the opportunity to play as both Attackers and Defenders. Although the map contained a lot of narrow alleys and tight corridors, there are a few areas where tanks can be used and when used correctly, really alter the course of a match.

For Operation Firestorm, our multiplayer mode was Conquest. Here it was all about capturing various points on the map and controlling them long enough to achieve victory. This is capture the flag but on a much larger scale as there are five target areas that must be controlled in order to achieve victory. This desert-locale of the map was extremely large and had many opportunities to utilize air units such as fighter jets and helicopters. In the match we took part in, there was a lot of action going happening, both above and below ground, with ground units having to deal with attacks from tanks and incoming air strikes from fighter jets.

When we stopped playing around with Multiplayer, the focus was then shifted towards the games upcoming Co-Op mode. There will be a number of missions available to play with a friend but the one in which we got to try out was called Hit and Run. You and your partner begin the mission in an office room having just recovering some very important Intel. Of course, your foes know that you have this and want to stop you, so youre going to have to shoot your way through the complex and secure an automobile in the garage to escape. Unfortunately, for my partner and myself, our headsets werent working properly during the match so we had some difficulty coordinating our efforts early on and were quickly killed off.

Thankfully though, we did manage to communicate to some degree and began planning our escape. The initial part of the mission had us trying to clear a room that had foreign attackers rush in. There are a number of different entry points that enemies can attack from, so knowing which areas to cover is extremely important; since it can change from one attempt to the next, moving fast makes all the difference. After clearing that room, a door opened and a hallway became available for use to progress; of course, this also made way for more enemies. As we attempted to rush through this area, enemies from a building across the street began to snipe at us. Here, its best to crouch and not bother firing at the snipers, focusing all your attacks at the next hallway in front of you.

After a firefight in one large area with enemies on two floors, then a section in which you will be pinned against the wall, there comes a situation where youll have to separate from your partner. In this particular area, there will be two entrances on two different floors and youll both have to attack the next area on your own. One will try to clear the room from above while the other does it from the ground. This was probably the most difficult portion for us as the upper section is essentially a dead-end, and if one character falls in during this fight, getting to them and revive them could result in that character's death as well.

Thats where our talk about this particular map ends but it was far from over. Expect a few more corridors and office areas with enemies to deal with. Then comes the grande finale and a rush to the exit.

This wouldnt be called a Content Overload if we only talked about Multiplayer and Co-Op. Of course, we also got to play the first few missions of the games Single-Player. The first real mission in the game has you and your squad mates in the middle of Tehran. Earlier this year, EA and DICE released a series of trailers showcasing a mission in which a character shoots an RPG at an enemy in a building across the way, defusing a bomb and then getting stuck in the middle of an earthquake. Well, Operation Sword Breaker is that mission and plays out with the same intensity of the trailers.

The second mission is entitled Uprising and takes place immediately following the Earthquake. Youre alive but separated from your party so you need to avoid the enemy, try to secure a weapon and hope to re-group with other members of your squad or anyone that doesnt want you dead. This mission wasnt very long but the first few moments where youre trying to avoid enemy contact and crawl through the debris is quite gripping.

The third and final mission we played, called Going Hunting, takes place around the same time as Uprising but here you play as fighter pilot Lt. Jennifer Colby Hawkins. Here you and your partner are flying high in the skies and as the gunner, are in charge of eliminating all incoming opposition. You dont fly the plane in this mission but are responsible early on to trigger counter-measures and shoot guns and missiles at the number of foes that are trying to take you out. Halfway through the mission, your role changes slightly and you become a marker, pointing out enemies scattered around the airport below and assisting in eliminating all threats.

There was quite a bit of information we absorbed and there is still a lot more content coming your way. On top of the two Multiplayer maps already touched upon, there were many more we got to try out and will be talked about the following week. Well touch upon what they are and how they looked, which should prepare you for what to expect once you begin playing in a couple of weeks time. Again, Battlefield 3 hits PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 25.